


Training Wheels

by WarlockWriter



Series: Salvation 'Verse [9]
Category: Supernatural, The Evil Gene (2015)
Genre: Gen, Training, psychic stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-06 09:48:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20504960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WarlockWriter/pseuds/WarlockWriter
Summary: This is just a little bridge story between A Heaven of Hell and the upcoming story in the series. Gabriel has a conversation with Griff about his psychic abilities and how they are growing a bit faster than anyone expected. Someone needs to train him. But who?





	Training Wheels

Griff felt Gabriel enter the Danger Room, but he ignored the angel for the moment. He was almost through his daily hundred rounds, and he wanted to finish before talking to anyone, much less an archangel.

It had been only a couple of days since the massive throw-down with Michael, and Griff knew Gabriel wanted to talk with him, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to have the discussion that was probably going to ensue.

He fired the rest of his magazine and regarded his shot grouping with disgust.

“Pulling a little high and to the right.”

Griff nodded as he turned around. “I know. Probably need to adjust the sights again.” He finished his turn. “What can I do for you?”

Gabriel was leaning against the table where everyone cleaned their weapons. “Not sure it’s what you’re doing for me. Might be more what we’re doing for you.”

Griff sighed, knowing this was the conversation he’d been dreading. “It’s about my…uh…psychic abilities, right?”

“Yup.” Gabriel said the word with an obvious _pop_ to the “p.”

“They aren’t causing any problems, I don’t think.” Griff wasn’t sure _why_ he didn’t want to talk about them, but he didn’t.

Gabriel pursed his lips. “Not exactly, no. But you’re not supposed to be able to do most of what you’re doing, and I don’t know why or what effect it’s going to have on you long-term.”

Griff sighed and brought his pistol over to the table to clean it.

“Like you managed to speak to me during the battle. It was faint, but I heard it.”

Griff’s head shot around in surprise. “I did?”

“Yes. Twice. You basically told me to get over myself and get on with it before I started battling Michael. And then when I told everyone to get on the ground while I grabbed Michael’s grace to transfer to Castiel, you sent ‘not stupid’ at me. Which was hilarious, even under the circumstances, but I was surprised you managed it.”

“Wasn’t it basically like a prayer?” Griff remembered thinking both of those things during the battle, but he hadn’t realized Gabriel had picked up on them. His hands started automatically disassembling his pistol.

“Not those, no. Those were sendings much like what Sam and I share over our bond.”

Griff’s eyes opened wide in alarm. “You’re not…bonding me are you?”

Gabriel laughed. “No. It’s nothing like that. You just seem to be developing the ability to project your thoughts, when you want or need to. It might be mostly random now, but I suspect you’re only going to get stronger. Have you always had a touch of the sight?”

Griff shrugged as he cleaned the barrel of his gun. “Dunno. Maybe. I was seeing some weird stuff at Godfrey, but that could have been hallucinations or the damn gene or whatever was wrong with me.”

“Huh,” was all Gabriel said. “Maybe so. Or maybe there was something there, and you were picking up on it.”

“But why now? Why does it seem to be getting stronger?”

“Probably my grace. It seems to have made Lex stronger and faster while perhaps enhancing your psychic ability. I hadn’t expected that.”

“It can do that?”

Now it was Gabriel’s turn to shrug. “Grace is funny stuff. It can have a bit of a mind of its own. I hadn’t expected you to be psychic, so it hadn’t occurred to me that it might boost that. I was expecting something more like what Lex got, once it finished healing you.”

“It’s done healing me, then?” Anything to avoid talking about being psychic.

From the wry grin Gabriel gave him, Griff didn’t think he’d fooled the angel with the question. But he did answer it. “I don’t think quite.” He frowned, the expression so oddly like Griff’s own. “I think it’s still working. I could give you some more grace, if you’d like. That might help.”

Griff had finished cleaning his pistol while the angel spoke. “That’s all right. I’m sure you need it more than I do.” He wasn’t any more certain about why he didn’t want more grace than he was about not talking about being psychic, but he didn’t. Gabriel had given enough, he guessed.

“As you wish. But if you change your mind, let me know. In the meantime, you need training. Untrained psychic ability can be a danger both to yourself and to others.”

“I can see where it might be a danger to me. But how could I hurt anyone else?”

Gabriel gave a small snort. “Ask Sam about when one of my ill-timed nightmares almost got him killed. The wrong thought to the wrong person at the wrong time can distract and injure or even kill someone.”

That chilled Griff. He could hurt someone? Like Lex? With a thought at the wrong time? “All right. I can see where that could be a problem. So, you’ll train me?”

Sam appeared in the doorway to the Danger Room. “No, me actually. I used to have psychic powers, of a sort. I remember enough to pass on what I learned.”

Gabriel scowled. “Learned from a demon.”

“It was still learning, whoever taught me.” The tall Hunter’s voice was calm, with a hint of amusement.

Sam had learned from a demon? Obviously another story Griff had yet to hear.

“Fair point.” The admission was reluctant, and Griff suspected this was something contentious between them. “But, yes,” Gabriel said. “Sam has agreed to train you. I think you’ll respond better to him.”

Griff agreed, realizing why he’d resisted this conversation. While he liked the archangel and was grateful to have him as an ally, the thought of being trained by him, in this area, was uncomfortable. He thought Sam would be easier. “All right. When do we start?”

“How about right now?” Sam asked.

Griff gave an audible gulp. “Uh. Sure?”

“I’ll leave you in my mate’s capable hands, then.” Gabriel left.

“Perhaps in the library?” Sam suggested.

Griff put away his gun and cleaning kit. “All right.” He had no idea what to expect but supposed he’d find out soon enough.

The library was empty. Griff reflexively searched for Lex’s grace. His partner was in the kitchen, probably making a snack. Good. He didn’t want an audience for this. Not even Lex. “So how does this work?”

“How are you at meditating?” Sam asked.

“Pretty awful. I was in therapy for a while. They tried to get me to learn, but I didn’t really take to it.”

“Then we’ll start with relaxation techniques.” Sam motioned him to a chair. Griff sighed. So, it was going to be like that, was it?

***

Over the next week, however, Griff found it to be easier than he’d expected. Unlike the therapists, Sam didn’t try to make him not think. He just helped him to focus his mind. In many ways, it was similar to what he did while shooting. He sometimes got into a zone where he felt almost one with his weapon. Turned out using his ability was similar.

“It’s not about tuning out anything,” Sam explained. “It’s more about tuning _into_ something.”

Griff slowly got the hang of it. It was a lot like what he did to find Lex, even though that used the grace, not his psychic ability. But once he realized the two were similar, it got easier.

Soon he could pick out thoughts from Sam, as long as his teacher was projecting them. Griff also practiced on Lex, which was easier. He didn’t know if it was because they were so close or because of the shared grace, but he could catch thoughts from Lex, even if his partner wasn’t deliberately projecting them.

Which led Griff to the realization that Lex was very much attracted to Gabriel. He kept that to himself, not sure how or if that would work out. Oddly, he was pretty sure the attraction was mutual, not that he could have explained how he knew that.

From detecting thoughts and emotions, Sam moved on to shielding, which was harder, but by the second week after the fight against Michael, Griff thought he had at least the basics of that figured out. He couldn’t block Gabriel, of course, but the angel assured him the new shields would block out the thoughts and emotions of everyone else in the Bunker, as long as no one got too “loud.” Griff could still get echoes from Lex, but he suspected that would always be the case. The shared grace had created a strong bond.

He practiced with his abilities as much as he practiced shooting. He wasn’t sure quite how it would impact Hunting, but he was sure it had to give him some advantages.

Griff knew he’d figure it out some day. Hopefully _before_ it became critical. Until then, he'd keep practicing.


End file.
